Sometimes the Devils Are Inside The Walls
by namahsciledehcysp
Summary: A Hogwarts professor sneaks a muggle friend into the castle and gets her a teaching position when their lives are in danger and magic seems to be involved. With nothing but sleight of hand, how long can she pull it off? And who can she trust?
1. Chapter 1

Sometimes The Devils Are Inside The Walls: A Harry Potter Fanfic

Warnings: I don't own HP. Rated mostly for some language. Also a little violence and some references to drug use, both relevant to the plot. And if you're a fan of Snape, he's going to be really mean in this story so you might not like it. 2 original characters, nothing really special about them.

Original characters: Liyya Morgan, Muggle Studies professor at Hogwarts and a former Ravenclaw. Cynthia Gray, Liyya's muggle friend who hides at Hogwarts under disguise as a witch when her life is in danger.

This is something I wrote several years ago when I first got into HP. I was 16 at the time and it brought back some great memories when I found and reread it. I thought it might be fun to work on it a bit, adding new stuff and finally giving it an ending. I'm hoping at least a few people get some enjoyment out of reading it!

P.S. Seeing as I was only 16 when I came up with the idea, please forgive some of the obvious holes in the plot. I know in the books muggles aren't able to see Hogwarts, but anything's possible in the land of fanfiction, right?

Intro

Sometimes it's nearly impossible to distinguish between lies and truth, and no matter how many years you've known a person, you can still find that you never really knew them at all.

It was a miserable, cold night. From outside, the massive Hogwarts Castle was almost completely obscured by heavy sheets of rain. Being just after midnight, both students and professors were asleep in their beds. The two figures that entered the castle went unseen. Their scheme would run better if they drew less attention to themselves during the initial stages.

They kept their voices down to whispers to avoid waking up the residents of the portraits or getting the unwanted attention of Filch.

"God, I'm freezing!"

"I'm sorry about this, but we need to get something straight before we go further. I need you to make a promise and it's more important than anything, even changing into dry clothes."

"Fine, anything." Their teeth chattered in the darkness.

"This is serious; I will not only lose my job and place in the wizarding world, but earn a one way trip to Azkaban if the Ministry catches wind of this. I don't even want to think of what your fate would be. You think your situation was bad before, but now you can't afford to slip up even ONCE. NOBODY here can find out that you're an outsider; promise me you'll defend that secret to your death if necessary and I'll do the same."

"You know I will" said the other figure. "Considering I'm as good as dead back home, I'll take my chances until things are sorted out."

"There's something else...The things you're about to see may be hard to process, but they're really mundane to us. You'll have to adjust fast or they'll figure it out even faster...Lumos!"

Professor Morgan lit her wand and held it low, providing just enough illumination to navigate the dark castle.


	2. Chapter 2

Liyya pointed her wand at Cynthia and magically dried her clothes first, repeating the process on herself as Cynthia looked up the stairs. Hogwarts was huge and very intimidating.

"You'll be fine" Liyya said, a hand at Cynthia's shoulder. "We'll get you some casual robes tomorrow; looking the part is at least half of it, right?"

"Only if things here are as shallow as in the normal world..."

"Trust me, that's one thing that'll never change about society, even with magic."

Cynthia smiled weakly, still nervous. She was a terrible actress so it was a frightening idea that her life at the moment depended upon her acting skills.

"If it makes you feel any better," Liyya said "classes are still out for winter break and you have almost a week to get better aquainted before having to interact with the students and other professors. Come on, Albus is waiting and I think you'll feel better after meeting him. Safer, at least."

Other than the fear of being somewhere new, Cynthia didn't have as much to worry about. There was little chance anybody would search for her here, even if they could make it further than the castle grounds.

Liyya knew it would be hard to pull off, but if the legendary idiot Gilderoy Lockhart could do it, anything was possible.

---

They quietly walked through a twisty maze of halls as Liyya described Albus Dumbledore, the head of Hogwarts.

"His insomnia works to our favor; we want to do this quietly and I can't think of a better time to get it over with. And there's nothing to worry about; Albus is extremely kind and always willing to help a friend of a friend. Just let me do the talking."

Cynthia nodded, desperate to get some rest.

They approached his office and the door opened before Liyya could even speak the password.

The old wizard that greeted them stood tall and impressive, wearing a beautiful hand embroidered cloak and half moon glasses. There was concern on his face.

"With the weather getting worse, I was worried you'd run into trouble. Come in and introduce your friend. Would you like something to drink?"

"No, we're fine. Just a little tired and cold, but given the circumstances, we're in good shape."

Cynthia stepped in the office after Liyya, careful not to touch anything or stare too long at any of the foreign wizarding items lying around.

The old wizard introduced himself. "I'm Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts. Liyya has told me about your situation."

She glanced at Liyya, who nodded and suppressed the guilt she felt over lying so shamelessly to Albus. "The problems began when Cynthia decided to return to the muggle world after finishing her wizarding education. We lost touch, but she contacted me recently because some strange things were happening."

"My friends started disappearing," Cynthia added when Albus glanced at her.

"Muggle friends, in particular" Liyya continued, no longer lying but wishing she was. "Then the first body turned up. I'll pass on the graphic details, but it was not in good shape or the product of a normal murder. I can't imagine why a witch or wizard would go after muggles, but that's what appears to be happening."

Dumbledore turned away, visibly disturbed and reluctant to show it. This was a new low for Voldemort or, he shuddered to think, whom/what ever else was behind it.

Liyya continued, effortlessly telling a blend of lies and truth. "Cynthia attempted to investigate when her best friend went missing but it was a bad idea, one that led to a situation where she was lucky just to lose her wand and not her life as well."

"You would most certainly be safe inside Hogwarts," Dumbledore said after thinking for a minute. "But I would be worried about the welfare of the students."

Liyya broke in "Seeing as we haven't managed to find someone to fill the Defense Against the Dark Arts position after Professor Ingstrom quit without notice..."

Dumbledore interrupted, "Severus is more than willing to accept the position; he's currently waiting for me to make the offer."

Liyya shook her head and pressed on. "He's better qualified where he already is. Everyone knows it, including Severus, even if he won't admit it. As far as defnding themselves goes, it's equally important for the students to learn potions. We can kill two birds with one stone here: keeping Cynthia safe until this outside situation is resolved, and filling a position without compromising our own staff."

Dumbledore looked over Cynthia for what seemed like forever; she was almost certain he knew they were lying. Maybe it was because he was just as tired as they were, but he reluctantly instructed Liyya to help her friend get situated.

"Based on your recent history, I will trust you have a fair amount of experience with the dark arts. We'll see how this works out on a temporary basis."

Liyya and Cynthia looked at each other and both breathed relief.

On the way out, he added, "You'll need a replacement wand."

---

Liyya walked fast as Cynthia trailed behind, looking around at the empty castle.

"It's a lot nicer in daylight," Liyya added. "The defense classroom and office are located in the lower castle. You might want to avoid Severus for a while. He's been after this job forever and would do almost anything to get it. With less than a week to find a replacement and the position practically in the palm of his hand, he won't take it well to hear that someone else walked in right in the middle of the night and stole it."

"What am I going to do about a wand?"

"Shit, I haven't even thought about it. I was making everything up on the spot if you didn't notice."

"You did a good job."

"Thanks. Anyway, we'll figure it out. You're in good with Dumbledore, so everything else is a minor annoyance as far as I'm concerned. Tomorrow, I'll show you the castle and you can get acquainted with everything. I'll help you with the lesson plans as well in my free time."

"Thanks; do you really think we can do it?"

"Considering past instructors" Liyya answered, "Most definitely. We haven't had the best luck with Defense Against the Dark Arts and I'm sure you can at least hold out for a couple months without making a worse impression."

"Hey, Liyya" Cynthia asked as they descended a staircase. "Why exactly did the last professor leave?"

Liyya froze in the process of opening a door at the bottom and Cynthia saw the reluctance in her face. Liyya almost looked relieved for the distraction when the door pulled itself open from the inside and a dark haired figure with crossed arms stood on the other side. Cynthia could tell that he was visibly upset even in the dim lighting, and intuitively got a bad feeling about him.

"Severus, is everything okay?" Liyya asked, hoping he hadn't heard much of their conversation.

"I could ask you the exact same thing, although I'm sure you have a very good excuse for wandering around the halls at 3 in the morning, waking people up."

He stared at Cynthia for an uncomfortably long time, with an expression frighteningly void of emotion.

Liyya took a deep breath, realizing he would find out soon enough anyway. "This is Cynthia Gray; she's taken the Defense Against the Dark Arts position for now."

"It's only temporary" Cynthia added, feeling more like this was a mistake than ever.

Snape extended a hand and introduced himself, unable to hide the jealousy and anger that raged under the surface before turning back to Liyya.

"Keep the noise down" he spat out before turning and disappearing for the night.

Liyya waited until he was long gone before commenting. "Snape may need an attitude adjustment and the broomstick removed from his ass, but he's all talk. Don't worry about your job or place here."

They took the door on the right and walked through an abandoned office to the adjoining bedroom. It was depressingly plain and cold, but Cynthia was so tired she didn't care.

"You've gone out of your way to help me" she told Liyya. "I'm really sorry about all of this."

"No, this is nothing. I've always wished we could have better relations with more open minded muggles, and this might be a stepping stone to something positive once it's all over."

Liyya was at the door before she turned around and added with a grave expression "Besides, I wasn't lying when I told Albus there may be magic involvement. As unlikely as it seems now, your help might be appreciated here sometime in the near future."

It was 3:30 by the time Cynthia was alone and she found herself wide awake in the uncomfortable new setting. Out of desperation, she swallowed a Xanax and soon fell into a dreamless sleep that probably wouldn't feel sufficient the next day. There was a lot to worry about, but it would have to be put off until later.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 2

Cynthia had explored the castle both with Liyya and on her own, been presented with 2 sets of black wizard robes and a yellow scarf, and met several friendly students. The troubles from her recent past had quickly faded and things were looking up.

At least, until the weekend before classes resumed. Cynthia had spent every spare second obsessively reading whatever materials she could find regarding the dark arts and, with the help of Liyya, planning the first week of lessons. To make things easier, Liyya was planning to stop by the classroom as a special guest to help out with the magic demonstration since Cynthia couldn't actually perform any. A few distractions and some sleight of hand, and nobody would know any better.

Despite the good preperations, doubts were surfacing worse than ever. And Cynthia was getting sick, but didn't dare go to Madam Pomfrey out of fear of being found out. It was safer to just deal with the headaches and chills until they went away on their own.

It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon; still cold, but the sun was out for once. Cynthia was skimming over "Hogwarts: A History" when someone timidly knocked at the door to her office.

After regaining her composure and taking a deep breath, she gave the mystery guest permission to enter.

The door opened and an awkward looking boy, probably 4th or 5th year stepped in.

"Uh, P-Professor Gray?" He slowly made his way to the desk. "Um, hi. I'm Neville Longbottom and you haven't met me yet, but the Headmaster wanted me to bring you this note..."

She ignored the steadily worsing pain in her head to stand up and meet the student halfway across the room.

"Nice to meet you" she said, taking the folded over piece of parchment "I look forward to seeing you in my class." Neville looked taken aback and her smile faded.

"Is everything okay?"

Neville looked down, biting his lip. "No, Professor. It's just, well I don't know how to say it. It's sort of a joke around the students that the Defense class is cursed, seeing as we've had 7 different instructors in the last 5 years. They're already taking bets on how long you'll last before M-Malfoy-" He stammered, unable to finish. "No, nevermind; I don't want to get into any more trouble..."

"No, it's okay," Cynthia offered, wanting to hear the rest of what he was about to say but just as afraid of knowing.

Neville took a deep breath and looked for a second like he was going to continue, but looked down and shook his head. "I'll be late for something. I'll see you tomorrow Professor Gray."

She frowned and followed him to the door of the classroom, more nervous than ever. Maybe taking a walk would help. And it couldn't hurt to start interacting with the others here. Liyya had mentioned that the professors were already commenting on her lack of presence in the great hall, so she resolved to eat with them that evening no matter how sick she felt.

--

Cynthia closed the door to her office and stepped out into a dimly lit hall that was lined with heavy suits of armor. For a second, she thought she saw one move just outside the field of her vision, but decided not to think about something so creepy.

She stopped short after hearing urgent sounding voices around the corner, catching the end half of Neville Longbottom desperately pleading.

"...really sorry Professor, but I'm going to be late and McGonagall will kill me if I miss another private lesson! She took 10 points last week!"

"And I suppose you would like me to take 20 points from Gryffindor," responded Severus Snape in a tone that gave Cynthia flashbacks of a much hated algebra teacher from her high school years.

Neville was near tears. "No sir, please, I just-"

The dark haired man towered over Neville, glaring down with plans to verbally abuse him further when Cynthia forced herself to intervene. Neville was less surprised by the interruption than the potions master, who froze momentarily before taking a step back from the boy.

"Good afternoon Professor Gray," Severus greeted her, forcing out the words and sounding less than sincere.

She nodded in his direction. "I apologize for the interruption, but I need to finish speaking with Mr. Longbottom privately."

A look of terror washed over the kid's face as he seemed to be considering which professor to be more afraid of. His fears were realized as Cynthia continued, "I wasn't done discussing the terms of your punishment."

"My punishment..?" he barely managed to squeak out. Snape could barely hide his pleasure at seeing the kid in distress.

"You heard me" Cynthia replied in a neutral tone. "I'm on my way to the Headmaster's office for an urgent matter, so you can walk with me and we'll talk about it on the way."

"What have I done now?" he grumbled quietly, more to himself than anyone else.

Cynthia turned back to Severus and forced a fake smile. "Don't worry; I'll try my best to make sure he returns to you in one piece, though I can't promise anything." She gripped Neville's hand and pulled him along. Severus didn't move and Cynthia refused to look back and see for herself, but she knew he wasn't happy.

---

She pushed a door open, and light from the several huge windows flooded the main hall.

"Professor, did I miss something?" Neville finally asked. "I'm not sure of what I did wrong and-"

She shook her head. "Just do your best to stay out of Professor Snape's way for the rest of the day because I can't help you out a second time."

Disbelief rose in his face, followed by thankfulness and relief.

"Thank you so much, Professor."

Neville started up the stairs, but hesitated at the last minute, wanting to return the favor.

"You might want to keep an eye on Draco Malfoy." With that said, he turned and quickly disappeared into the upper castle.

Cynthia unfolded the piece of parchment still in her hand and looked at it, confronted with a bunch of wizarding terms that made little sense, having to do with something called Quidditch. All she could figure out was that Dumbledore wanted her to participate in something at the end of the week; she made a mental note to ask Liyya about it next time they ran into each other. 


	4. Chapter 4

AN: Please review, whether you liked it or think it's a terrible story. I won't know any better until I see some comments :)

Chapter 3

Dinner was held in the great hall and it was the first time Cynthia opted to participate rather than have food delivered to her office by something called house elves. She hadn't yet seen one in person, but they never failed to leave plates of food outside the door 3 times a day.

Liyya met her friend outside the great hall 15 minutes before the meal started, looking concerned about something.

Before they could even exchange greetings, Liyya pulled Cynthia aside and asked whether she had received one of the Quidditch invitations.

"Actually I did," Cynthia answered innocently, "But I figured it was something I could worry about later."

Liyya shook her head, glancing suspiciously at the lines of hungry students that passed and lowering her voice. "No, this is bad."

Cynthia froze and concern overtook her face.

Liyya did her best to explain. "Dumbledore has decided it would be a good idea to hold a Quidditch match for the professors to take part in, as sort of a novelty for the students. As brilliant as he is, I'll admit he comes up with some ideas that make little to no sense sometimes..."

"And..?" Cynthia pressed, wanting to hear what was so bad about it.

"The game is played on broomsticks. You won't be able to participate."

"That's not really a big deal," Cynthia said. "I'll just decline; I'm not a sports person anyway."

"No" Liyya hissed. "if you turn it down without a good reason, it'll look suspicious. You can't afford to draw too much attention to yourself."

Cynthia was convinced Liyya's overly desperate attempts at being furtive would blow the cover more than anything, but agreed to let her friend come up with the perfect excuse.

"I'll think of something, I promise. We have until Friday, so let me take care of this one." Liyya cleared her throat and looked around again just to make sure nobody had overheard.

---

They were the last 2 professors to enter the Great Hall, finding that everybody had started to eat without them.

"We'll talk after dinner about the plans for your classes tomorrow" Liyya promised, taking her place in between Professors Flitwick and Sprout. To Cynthia's disappointment, the only empty seat left was conveniently sandwiched between Severus Snape and the far left wall. Given the choices, she supposed the wall would make better conversation.

Barely giving her a chance to sit down, Dumbledore stood up to make an announcement.

"Attention! before we continue, I'd like to introduce everybody to Professor Gray. She will be temporarily taking over Defense Against the Dark Arts, seeing as Professor Ingstrom will not be returning."

A pale, blonde boy in green robes nudged his friends and they didn't bother to hide their laughter at hearing this. The Headmaster cleared his throat and continued.

"I will make certain that your new professor is treated her with kindness and respect for however long she is with us at Hogwarts. That is all."

The chatter and noise resumed around the hall and Cynthia looked down at her plate. Glazed ham, potatoes, and some kind of salad. The ordinary food served as a reminder of the life she temporarily left and filed her with sadness. A familiar face surfaced in her mind and she quickly pushed it down; he was probably dead and not worth lingering on right now.

"Pass the pumpkin juice." The voice next to Cynthia pulled her back into the present, and she glanced at the two pitchers at the far end of the table, not sure which was which.

"Nevermind, I'll have to do it myself." Severus grew impatient and made a big scene of reaching over her plate to grab the juice, handing it to the older woman sitting next to him. Cynthia hadn't met her yet, but nodded when the witch acknowledged her with a friendly smile.

The eyes and whispers of several students were directed in her direction, and she knew the rumors had started early, though there was little to base them on at this point. She chose to ignore the attention and focus on picking at the food.

---

After dinner, it was all Cynthia could do to resist heading straight for her bed, with a brief detour to a fast disappearing bottle of Xanax. But Liyya was waiting for her outside the great hall.

"I'm really tired and since we've gone over the lesson plans at least 5 times, I think we'll be fine tomorrow."

"Okay," Liyya agreed. "you need to rest. But first, I have something important to give you." They descended towards the lower castle together, waiting until they were alone before Liyya produced a thin wand from inside her robes.

"Don't worry, it's just a prop" she said in a low voice. "Looks real enough, right?"

Cynthia nodded, never having seen a real wand up close and not really knowing the difference anyway.

Liyya again stressed her formula for success. "Appearance is EVERYthing. Okay, maybe 90% of it. Even you're a good enough actress to fake the other 10% though."

Cynthia took the prop wand and put it away, ready to get the first day over with already. Liyya promised to show up at the classroom at least 30 minutes ahead of time and they hugged each other good night, with Cynthia waiting until she was alone to walk back to her quarters.

On the way, Neville Longbottom came running through the door, nearly knocking her down. He picked himself up and sheepishly admitted that Snape had finally managed to get him after dinner.

"Said I'd be cleaning out rusty old cauldrons all night...without magic. At least Weasley opened his big mouth and said something, so I won't be doing it alone." He shrugged and continued to the Potions room.

Staring down the dark hall, Cynthia was suddenly overtaken by a wave of exhaustion and decided that maybe she wouldn't need the Xanax tonight.


End file.
